Chapter 10 Chapter Ten Living Alone

The car passed through the center of the city where the roads criss-crossed, and people and cars were seen along the way.Looking through the glass window, these people and cars seem far away. If you reach out to touch it, you can only touch the glass. There are some sticky things stuck to the glass. I don't know when it was left.I think of today, before, and even in the years I have lived to this day, except for the few people I am most familiar with, most of them are the same as the people outside the car window. They can only wait and see, but cannot touch. This makes me have an absurd idea. : Maybe none of them exist.

If some things or people can't bring you real touch, what's the difference between them and movies? I often like to think so wildly, driving fast while thinking about it.After driving for an unknown amount of time, I stopped the car out of instinct.People who think blindly must have this instinct, otherwise the car will keep driving, and I am afraid that it will be able to drive to the end of the sky. has arrived.I checked the time, four hours had passed since I left. Ahead was a small village, and a man stood at the entrance of the village, looking at me hesitantly through the windshield.I got out of the car door, looked around, and was slightly taken aback—I was too busy thinking about things just now, and didn't pay attention to the environment, but now I realized that I had gone deep into the hinterland of the mountains, surrounded by undulating green hills like a deep well. In the past, there were mountains, with a long and narrow yellow mud road in the middle, and this village was at the end, and there was no one else.

"Zhao Fang?" I took a few glances at that person—crew hair, fair face, slender figure, similar to the boss's description. "Yes." Zhao Fang hurried over, "Are you Zhang Ping?" "Hmm. Do you have everything ready?" "Ready, ready." He raised the travel bag in his hand. "Leave now, or go home and say hello?" "Let's go, let's say hello." He said shyly. I waved to him and got into the car first.Zhao Fang walked over slowly, and when he reached the car door, he stopped and looked back.I followed his gaze and saw the pulsed fields in front of me. Dogs and children were running in the fields. Adults shuttled between them with hoes on their shoulders, and laughter came from afar.I looked back at Zhao Fang again, he was staring at his village in a daze, as if a little melancholy.After realizing that I was looking at him, he blushed and got into the car with his head down.

As usual, I don't like to talk, but Zhao Fang kept asking some questions. "Is the company big?" he asked. "It's okay." I tried to keep my words as simple as possible. "Is it far away?" "Ok." "How long will it take to arrive?" "4 hours." "That's really far away." "Ok." ... Although I don't like talking, I won't interrupt him easily.In the end, he noticed the cold atmosphere in the car, smiled, leaned over the back of the seat, and leaned his head towards me: "You don't like to talk?"

"Ok." "why?" This question confuses me a bit.There are many reasons why I don't like talking, because I am lazy, because I can't speak clearly in a short time, and most importantly, I always think that it is impossible for people to understand each other through language. In other words, it is impossible for people to fully understand a person, and the so-called empathy will never happen.For example, I am driving now. I have been driving for more than 7 hours since I started. I feel very tired, my eyes are a little sore, and my back is a little sore.But I can't let others know this feeling. If I tell Zhao Fang this, he may sympathize and comfort me, but what about it?He couldn't transfer the tiredness from me to him.So language is a very weak thing, and the older I get, the more I realize this-never expect others to truly understand you, to some extent, everyone is alone, even in a busy city, you can’t change it This loneliness.

Zhao Fang's question formed such a lengthy discussion in my mind, and the thought of saying it gave me a headache, so I simply pretended not to hear it. At this time, the car had already driven into the downtown area. After asking me this sentence, Zhao Fang did not continue to ask.Behind me he let out one exclamation after another. "This building is very tall, just like on TV!" He said. I didn't even bother to say "um", and concentrated on driving my car. Such exclamations kept coming out of his mouth, and in the end, I couldn't help but ask, "Have you never seen a building?"

"I've never seen one so tall," he said, and my question opened his mouth. "I've grown to 19 years old, and I've never left the village—there are only two-story buildings in the village. The city is really lively. , Hey, this woman wears suspenders..." I feel a headache.I used to only know that women like to talk, but I didn't expect this man to be so talkative.But his talkativeness is understandable, it just doesn't match his gentle and shy appearance.In his exclamation, I felt that the city I was familiar with was not so lifeless, maybe it still had some lovely and fresh places, but I lived in it for a long time and turned a blind eye to it.

When I arrived at the company, it was only an hour before I got off work.I parked the car in the garage and took Zhao Fang from the elevator in the garage directly to the 25th floor where the company is located.According to the boss's instructions, he was brought into the boss's office immediately.When the boss saw me leading him in, he was taken aback for a moment, and then immediately understood.For the first time, he stood up from the big chair, walked out from behind the huge writing desk, and stretched out his hands to Zhao Fang: "Farmer in Taoyuan?" He stretched out his hand: "Are you from the desert?" The two shook hands warmly.

I was a little dizzy when I heard them addressing each other, but the next conversation quickly made me realize—these two are netizens, and they have been dating online for more than half a year. Hearing that Zhao Fang had never left the village at such a young age, he strongly invited him to work in the company.Before this, the boss had never personally arranged for anyone to come to the company, which also showed how much he attached importance to Zhao Fang.Seeing that the two were chatting enthusiastically, I turned around wisely and planned to leave, but was stopped by the boss. "Zhang Ping, don't leave, talk to us," he said to Zhao Fang, "This is Zhang Ping, the planner of our company, and he and I are the only ones in the company who can talk to each other." It made me feel a little shocked—to be honest, I never felt that I could chat with anyone. Although the boss often came to chat with me, I always thought that the communication between us was superficial. He meant a little confidant to me, which made me feel a little sorry for him.

The three of us chatted together, only to find that we really have something in common.For example, we all think that people are lonely, and we also think that this kind of loneliness cannot be dismissed or eliminated. The boss's online name "Man in the Desert" has this meaning. In the middle of the crowd, he feels that other people are just sand in the desert. The more people there are, the more lonely he feels.Zhao Fang said that he felt that the only place in the world that made him feel warm was that small village. Except for that place, other places in the world were extremely indifferent, which is why he stayed in the village and could not come out.In the end we began to discuss the origin of this loneliness, but no one could say one, two, three.

Seeing that it was almost time to get off work, the boss asked me to take Zhao Fang to various departments to meet people.I took him to and fro between offices. Everyone was very enthusiastic when they saw a new colleague, but as soon as we turned around, they talked about the topic before we came in. After all, the newcomer It still has nothing to do with their lives, they are only interested in their own affairs-in fact, everyone is like this, and I am no exception. During this period, I did not leave his side for half a step. Finally we went back to my office.Old Zhao and Lili in the office were reading the newspaper. When they saw Zhao Fang, they greeted Zhao Fang enthusiastically, and then pulled him to ask questions.Zhao Fang also chatted with them enthusiastically, and I sat in front of the computer and watched the news online. Not long after, Zhao Fang walked out of the office to go to the bathroom.When going out, he closed the office door by the way.Although it was his first time in the city, he didn't seem particularly familiar with the newcomers. Besides, this was within the company, and he had been introduced to him everywhere. Of course, I didn't need to follow him to the bathroom.So when he walked out, I didn't look up and continued to focus on the news in front of me. Old Zhao and Lili continued to read the newspaper. Unprepared, we heard Zhao Fang yelling outside the door, followed by panicked footsteps, as if he was running around the company.The few of us glanced at each other, jumped up and rushed towards the door almost at the same time, before we opened the door, Zhao Fang had already opened the door and barged in, and immediately closed the door, leaning against the door and gasping for breath. His face was as white as paper, covered with fine sweat, bean-sized beads of sweat kept dripping from his temples, his eyes were so wide open that they were almost out of their sockets, he looked at us frantically, his mouth was wide open, But there was no sound. "What's the matter?" We were frightened by his expression, looking at his expression, it seemed that something terrible happened outside. "All dead," he murmured. "What? They're all dead?" Old Zhao asked. Zhao Fang stared at us fixedly, slowly raised his finger, and pointed at the door with even shaking, "Everyone outside is dead!" This statement made us all gape - it is impossible to believe such a statement, there are at least 15 people in the large office outside, and I saw them alive and busy a few minutes ago, to say such a short time It is absolutely impossible for the inner dead to be completely and silently. But Zhao Fang's expression was so frightened, his trembling body and pale face could not be faked, and the two pupils shrunk to be almost invisible could not be faked either. What is going on outside? After we stayed for a while, we quickly reacted.Lao Zhao and I rushed up, pushed Zhao Fang's limp body aside, and pulled the door open. Before the door was fully opened, we knew Zhao Fang was not telling the truth. From the half-open door came the voices of people talking, and I could make out each one of them by the high and low voices.When the door was fully opened, people in the big office walked around as usual, some were doing business and some were chatting. Nothing unusual. Lao Zhao and I glanced at each other, he raised his eyebrows at me, shrugged his shoulders, and returned to our office with a smile. I turned to look at Zhao Fang. "They're all dead, aren't they?" He still looked like he was scared out of his wits. "Yes," I said with a rare sense of humor, "the death is alive and well." Hearing what I said, he froze for a moment, and listened carefully, as if he had just heard the sound outside.He glanced at me in disbelief, then quickly rushed to the door, staring blankly at the big office. "What happened?" After a long time, he turned around and asked me. If it was before, when I just graduated from school, I would be very interested to know why he thinks everyone outside is dead, but now, I am too lazy to ask so many questions, and shrugged like Old Zhao, Back to the computer again. Zhao Fang slowly walked in front of me: "They really all died just now." I ignored him. "They were standing or sitting motionless, and their bodies seemed to be frozen," Zhao Fang rubbed one palm on his thigh, his face flushed, "I even touched their chests, but they didn't have a heartbeat. Not breathing, really dead." I still ignored him. He cast his eyes on Old Zhao and Lili, who coughed and held up the newspaper to cover their faces. After sitting for a while, his face became more and more red, and finally he seemed to be talking to himself, and he seemed to be telling us: "I'll go and see again." He opened the door again and went out. We all put down what we were doing and looked at the door. He closed the door. The sound insulation effect of this door is very good. Once the door is closed, the small sound outside the door cannot be heard, but it may be because he is too close to the door, we still heard his screams. "Crazy." Old Zhao said with a smile. None of us went out this time. Zhao Fang didn't come in again either. After a few minutes, the phone in the office rang. Lili sat by the phone and pressed the speakerphone: "Hello?" "Look out of the window!" A severely deformed voice shouted, the voice changed so much that we couldn't recognize who it was, but his next words let us understand his identity: "They are all dead, all No one in the company, or the whole city, is alive!" "We are still alive!" Lili said with a smile. "There are only a few of us left!" He almost broke down roaring.